use strict; my $date; my $lastdate; while (($date = ) or $lastdate){ $lastdate ||= $date; next if $lastdate eq $date; # print $lastdate report here print "Line $. ends date $lastdate"; $lastdate = $date; } #### __DATA__ 10 10 10 11 11 11 12 12 12 Line 4 ends date 10 Line 7 ends date 11 Line 9 ends date 12